In the Land of Leadale - Volume 1 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Magic, a Hunt, a Development, and a Well 

When Cayna woke up with a headache the next morning, she vowed she would never drink again. 

“Agh…” 

With a fed-up expression that seemed to say, Is this what it means to wreck yourself with alcohol? she headed to the well to wash her face. 

There, she found Lytt giving a “Heave-ho” as she drew water from the well. The girl noticed Cayna just as she was lifting up a small, filled pail. 

Lytt alternated her gaze between the pail and Cayna. Deciding guests were the priority, she offered the small bucket of water, but Cayna refused. 

“It’s okay, Lytt. You’re at work now, right? I can do it myself.” 

“Um, but…” 

“Oh, and look at what you’re wearing! Do you like it?” 

“Yeah!” 

Lytt had on a star-shaped hair accessory. The silver lamé sparkled and turned blue and green depending on how the light struck it. It was one of the items Cayna had taken out of storage the day before and gave +1 Defense as well as poison nullification. She thought it suited Lytt, so she had brought it back as a present. 

It was the first item she had ever made with the Offline Mode Craft Skill: Accessory. Cayna had stored it away as a keepsake and had completely forgotten about it until rediscovering it yesterday. 

It was incredibly rare for a village girl to own such an item, and the memory of how Lytt had danced with glee made Cayna smile. She patted Lytt’s head as the girl nodded with a marvelous grin. 

Cayna then approached the well and swiftly pulled the rope to draw water. She looked into the relatively cool, clear water and murmured, “Actually, I want warm water,” as she held her hand out over the bucket. 

Magic Skill: Additional Warm Water: Start 

An instant later, the invisible light that poured from her outstretched hand slightly heated the water in the bucket. Lytt’s eyes widened as steam rose from the pail, and she gave a hearty round of applause as Cayna dipped the towel she’d brought with her into the water. 

Marelle, who had come out to complain about what was taking her daughter so long, appeared befuddled by how relaxed the two of them were. 

“Oh? So magic can do things like that, too?” 

“I’m sorry. I interrupted Lytt’s work…” 

Not wanting Lytt to get in trouble, Cayna had bowed her head low. Marelle merely responded with astonishment. 

Cayna had become an overnight sensation in the village. The people greeted her warmly whenever they crossed paths and would even offer her a literal piece of their pie. There weren’t many young women in town, so the older citizens began regarding her as a sort of adoptive granddaughter. Cayna had no intention of revealing her character’s true age by this point and accepted the role without question. She soon began chatting with the elderly at the hospital and wasn’t particularly bothered by the all-too-familiar setting. 

“Hmm, seems pretty handy. You think people like us can use it, too?” 

“The Warm Water spell? Um, you’ll need to learn the Iyah and Iyahra for Fire Magic and the Ohta for Water Magic, so…” 

“Okay, okay, I get it! At this age, I don’t have that kinda time to study magic.” 

As Cayna counted the different forms of magic on her fingers, Marelle waved her own hand dismissively. 

Even if Cayna offered them skills using a scroll, she had no idea if the villagers could actually learn spells. Watching Cayna sink deeper into thought with a serious “Hmm,” Marelle patted her shoulder with a wry smile and went to leave. 

Just then, Lottor walked in the open door with something in one hand. 

“Good morning, Miss Cayna. I’ve brought the bear horns you asked me for yesterday.” 

“Oh, are you sure? Won’t it be a valuable source of income for the village?” 

“No worries. You’re the one who took the monster down, right? That means this belongs to you.” 

A village like this on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Felskeilo and dependent on the flow of outside trade throughout Leadale didn’t have much to offer. Thus, caravans would routinely come by once every several months and sell everything from grain to game and replenish daily necessities. 

“Hmm. All right, in that case, why don’t I take down another one for you?” 

“Oh, no, no, no. You’re not even a villager, Miss Cayna. There’s no need for you to do such a thing.” 

“But you’ve all been so kind. I want to show my appreciation.” 

The two horns he handed to her were tied together with rope. Cayna stared at them as she made her suggestion, and Marelle placed a hand on the girl’s head. 

“You don’t have worry about us so much. After all, you’re our guest. It’s not like we’re bein’ nice because we want a reward.” 

“That’s right! Miss Cayna, didn’t you say yesterday that it’s only natural to help others in need?” 

“…But I’d feel guilty if I accepted such kindness yet did nothing in return…” 

This desire to repay others was a self-indulgence born of Keina’s inability to do anything for herself after the accident. 

Her uncle and cousin. The doctors and nurses. The other admitted children as well as elderly patients. They would come to see her when she wasn’t playing the game and help ease the pain of losing her parents and facing such trying circumstances. However, she no longer had the chance to repay them. 

“Well, go ahead and do whatever you like. We’re all pretty happy with life here.” 

“Hear, hear! It looks like wisdom really does come with a… Gwagh!” 

“Get back to work, you! Quit dawdling around!” 

Marelle angrily chased Lottor out with a tray before turning around with a big smile and patting Cayna on the back as if to say, Don’t sweat it. She then headed back inside. 

Cayna shifted her gaze between Marelle’s back and that of Lottor, who had been forcefully sent on a hunt. She followed the latter. 

He noticed her as he was covering himself with leaves outside the village. 

“What are you doing, Lottor?” 

“M-Miss Cayna?! Don’t sneak up on me like that! Ya nearly gave me a heart attack!” 

“Ha-ha, I’m sorry about that.” 

Once he could breathe again, Lottor resumed patting himself down with leaves. Cayna stared at him with keen interest. It seemed to be some sort of ancestral method of effectively masking human scent. 

She figured she ought to follow suit and cast Deodorize to erase her own scent. Afterward, Cayna sniffed the air but couldn’t tell if there was much of a difference and simply angled her head curiously. She resumed following Lottor. 

As a hunter, it was his job to venture out every two or three days and use traps to hunt small birds and animals. He also knew his way around the forest and had to stop Cayna from traveling down the game trails her eyes expertly spotted. 

“Huh? But this is a game trail, isn’t it?” 

“It belongs to some type of carnivore. If we go down that way, it’ll probably pick up our scent and follow us to the village. We should take this narrow path.” 

The lush area he indicated was so overgrown with weeds and field grass that it was impossible to tell if there was a path at all, but Cayna’s keen high-elf senses told her where to go. She half-dubiously continued trailing Lottor, and they indeed came upon a road that was just barely passable. 

Her elven sensitivities were genuine, but this sixth sense of hers had never come this naturally before. However, if this truly was reality and not just a game, she had no choice but to get used to it. Even if the adjustment happened slowly over time, Cayna wasn’t yet a full-fledged high elf. There were still parts of her that didn’t know the first thing about this society and were decidedly “un-elf-like.” 

As Cayna followed Lottor, one thing was soon made clear. 

She had no idea how to navigate a forest. 

As they came out upon an area where the trees grew sparse and she went to take a step toward a wide space densely scattered with fallen leaves, Lottor issued a warning. 

“Miss Cayna, you don’t know what’s hiding in there. I think we should go around it.” 

“Oh, really? All right.” 

Insisting that it was better to have more targets if they hoped to catch anything, he headed toward a choir of birdsong. He then stated there were so many that he and Cayna wouldn’t stand a chance and reluctantly backed away. 

Back when she was playing the game, none of those details mattered. Cutting straight through the forest and mowing down any enemies that stood in her way was all part of the experience. 

Now that Lottor was here, it was only natural that she follow his lead. She also felt slightly guilty for saying such silly things and sticking so close to him. She hoped she could repay him by helping out somehow. 

Finally, Lottor was able to collect a few birds from the traps he had laid a few days prior. After Lottor reset the traps, their forest stroll came to an end. 

“Miss Cayna, are you really an elf?” 

“Ah-ha-ha… I was mostly on the battlefield, so I never did much hunting.” 

She had used the stories from the manga and novels she read a long time ago to fool his suspicious gaze, but it wasn’t long before she had a chance to show off her battle skills— Just as they were heading home, a horned bear appeared. 

The scent of leaves wouldn’t help them with this one. The horned bear rose up on its hind legs to take a swing at Lottor, but Cayna sent it flying an impressive distance with a quickly cast Wind spell. 

The horned bear went tumbling onto the main road. By the time it shook its head, stood up, and checked its surroundings, it was too late. 

With a big help from a running start and some Wind Magic, Cayna had already unleashed her beautiful flying form. The kick, powered by an extra burst of Weapon Skill: Charge and a boost of indiscriminate force, exploded in time with an inexplicable shout of “SUPER DANGEROUS DESTROYER KICK!!” 

Cayna’s face grew beet red when she realized Lottor was there to hear her triumphant battle cry—a moment she would pretend never happened. 

Dragging the bear down the road, she hurried down the path to the village with Lottor, making every effort to hide her red ears the entire way. 

The villagers gladly welcomed another helping of valuable food and resources. However, since the caravans would soon be arriving, they would butcher and safely store it so it could later be used for bartering. 

Cayna planned on giving them the whole bear since she didn’t have much use for it, but they once again insisted “At least take this!” and offered her the horns. She didn’t feel quite right about accepting the kind offer, but two horns could be used to make a pronged spear, while the other two could be used as a catalyst to summon a familiar. Strength-wise, it would be about level 20 and weak enough that Cayna could take it down with a snap of her fingers. 

She had no idea what level the people of this world were at, but she figured she might as well help wherever she could. 

The following day was a boring one that consisted of absolutely nothing. Tossing around the horns as if they were beanbags, Cayna strolled about the village, wondering if there was anything she could do. The town had nothing but houses and fields, so her only option was to sit on a boulder by the roadside and watch the villagers tend to their work. There weren’t any attractions of any sort, so the tranquil scenery was pretty much the only excitement the village had going for it. Coming here, one couldn’t expect much more than collecting the eggs of the chickens who walked around as if they owned the place. 

With this in mind, Cayna looked at the Map Window in the corner of her vision that showed her progress. Her movements over the past two days between the silver tower, the village, and the surrounding area were marked down like a satellite image taken from above. 

“Kee?” 

“I have created a map of the remote region. Let us expand our range and form a more detailed picture.” 

“Yeah, I guess that’s about all we can do. That aside, doesn’t this village feel familiar?” 

The cluster of houses at the center of the village. The fields along the outer perimeter. Cayna felt as if she’d seen them somewhere before and pondered with an intense “Hmm.” Soon enough, a memory welled up from deep inside her. 

“Ah, this must be one of the Entry Points in Offline Mode.” 

The VRMMORPG game Leadale had both an Online Mode and an Offline Mode, and each had different Entry Points. In Online Mode, it was the royal capital of whatever nation you belonged to, and in Offline Mode, you were put in any random village. It was the player’s job to turn their little hamlet into a fortress by completing the villagers’ requests. Those who completed the scenario and acquired fifteen magic spells and thirty skills carved a pathway to quest success. 

In World of Leadale, aside from the seven basic types of magic, you couldn’t earn a single skill without completing quests. Only those who obtained four thousand skills and completed the prerequisite quest could be Skill Masters. 

However, there was a hidden disadvantage. If even one of your skills was gained through a scroll, you were disqualified from becoming a Skill Master. On that note, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say the title itself was a trap set by the Admins. Naturally, a skill cannot be voided once obtained. Even if you try to start that prerequisite quest, it won’t initiate because the skill has already been acquired. 

Game addicts like Cayna who had been around since beta testing knew about this, but those who only jumped into the world after the game got off the ground didn’t and missed their chance for the title. 

Incidentally, the Admins scrubbed anything about this truth as soon as it hit the Internet. Thus, aside from those who joined in the game’s earliest stages, not many knew about it. Veteran players wailed that they should channel their efforts into more productive avenues. 

In that case, why not help this village progress like the ones in Offline Mode? she wondered idly. 

“That might end up being a bit of a pain, though…” 

The field workers called out to Cayna as she mumbled deep in thought. 

“Hey there, Miss Cayna. Got some business here in the fields?” 

“…Huh? Ah, um, I was just wondering how I could help the village out.” 

Upon hearing this, the villagers looked at one another and burst into laughter. 

“Wh-what’s so funny?” 

“Nah, don’t take it personally, Miss Cayna. It’s just that you’re a guest at the inn.” 

“That’s right. Taking care of the village is a villager’s job!” 

“You don’t gotta worry about somethin’ like that.” 

Obviously, she couldn’t say much to their unanimous responses and jovial laughter. She ducked her head and quickly left. Soon after, she gazed up at the sky with crossed arms and mentally checked through her array of skills one by one. 

They really did run the gamut. Some, like the Magic Skill: Warm Water she had used recently, were good for a single quest and pretty much useless afterward. There were also plenty she’d acquired in order to obtain certain high-level skills, only to never touch them again. Others were problematic if taken lightly. Craft Skill: Building: Castle was a good example of this. 

Fewer than half of all skills were used consistently into the foreseeable future. Even Craft Skills that actually specialized in creating something numbered fewer than 2,500—as was the case with Weapon Skills, Active Skills, Passive Skills, and Special Skills. There were so many that even Cayna couldn’t remember all the ones she had in her arsenal. She had to check her Skill List for each new situation and see what would fit. 

She strolled around the outer edge of the village, passed through the wild fields that long ago served as a rest stop for carriages entering the village, and found herself at the back of the inn. 

There, she yet again spotted Lytt drawing water from the well. Since Cayna was under strict orders from Marelle to stop doing her daughter’s work, she could do nothing more than watch. Seeing that small body pull at the rope bucket with all she had was anxiety inducing. 

As she thought that changing the structure of the well would be more effective than giving the girl a STR Up bangle, a flash of inspiration hit her. 

While they were still in the process of transforming the village into a fortress, she could use her skills to create various accommodations within it. This included a possible water-drawing mechanism for the kitchen well. Its framework would be made with a wooden caterpillar tread. A simple hand pump was best in such a situation, but since they lacked the required metal, she’d have to forgo any automatic capabilities. 

The final product would be a caterpillar-style machine cranked by hand and run by gears. It would be affixed with numerous containers and run water through a trough. 

To create the device, she would need a small amount of metal and a large amount of wood. They were better off integrating it with the current well, so the installation itself would be easy. 

“All right! I’ve gotta work, not worry. I’ll go ask Marelle for permission.” 

The woman was bewildered when Cayna suddenly came flying in yelling, “I want to renovate the well!” 

Cayna told her she wanted to create a mechanism that would help not only Lytt but all the villagers draw water more easily. She even explained with gestures, but Marelle still didn’t understand. 

Though confused at first, the woman could see Cayna was much more exuberant than she had been that morning, so she granted permission. 

“I got the okay from Marelle! Yahoo!” 

“Ah! Hold on, Cayna! Didn’t you come in for lunch?!” 

Cayna was jumping around like a fish that had just been given water and started to rush out, but Marelle’s voice brought her back to her senses. 

Each day at the inn included breakfast and dinner, but lunch was a separate fee. Having caused trouble, she handed over two of the coins from the stockpile she’d showed back on day one and said, “You can return the difference when I leave the village.” This was met with “Make sure you eat a proper lunch, then.” 

Having acted strangely shamefully, Cayna finished her lunch with a crimson face. 

After that, she circled around the well and glared at her Item Window. The cause of her troubles was the fact that she didn’t have all the materials on hand, and what she did have wasn’t enough to make what she wanted. It would require a great deal of wood, and in a farming village, such resources were needed for kindling. In that case, she’d have to figure something out on her own. 

“Hmm. I guess cutting some down is my only option, huh?” 

Based on how she’d felt in the forest yesterday, Cayna had some serious doubts over whether she could cut down the trees and shrubs against their will. 

As she thought this, she came to a sudden realization. 

“Ah, I know! I don’t have to cut them down because some are already broken.” 

Cayna thought back to the brutal scene the bear had created after she’d sent it flying farther than expected. Deciding to strike while the iron was hot, she returned to the area from the day before. 

There, she found the trees toppled across one another like a row of dominoes. One of the trees at the front was gone. The villagers must have taken it. A single trunk would probably suffice quantitatively, but she could surely find other uses for the others, too. Cayna didn’t know when an opportunity like this would come again, so she decided to process the whole kit and caboodle. 

Craft Skill: Wood Processing Level 3: Start 

A fierce wind spun around Cayna, collected the branches from three fallen trees, and swept them away. The bark was then peeled into thin strips, and the round slices piled up right before her eyes with a loud Thump! Thump! Thump! 

The forest filled with the sound of rustling as trees were tossed around by the wind, but finally, all grew quiet once more. Cayna stared at her startling progress in mute amazement. She then abruptly dropped her shoulders and gave a sigh. 

“Sheesh, I knew Wind Magic was a must-have, but this really is something…” 

One of the disadvantages of being a high elf was that she couldn’t gather her own plant ingredients. She’d bought them at the store before or requested materials from fellow guild members, but her eyes now shrank to dots as she witnessed the process for the first time. 

All Craft Skills required default magic such as Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ice, or Light. Players used Wind Magic to saw and process wood as Cayna had just done, but the game’s display never showed anything like this. The corresponding effects paled in contrast. Compared with what she’d just witnessed, the display for this spell looked like nothing more than little tornadoes. 

A single log slice was the size of a truck tire. She bundled a dozen together as one and ended up putting fourteen in the Item Box. An amount weighing the equivalent of a ten-ton truck vanished into thin air. 

“…Don’t think about it too hard, Cayna. You’ll be done for if you start thinking. Yeah.” 

She put a palm to her forehead to soothe the headache brought on by trying to understand matters outside the laws of physics (even though she was the one who was breaking those laws). She then took out a gag weapon from the Item Box. 

It was Tragic Night: Jason Blade, forged with Intimidate (for preventing enemies from running away) and Fear (for temporarily paralyzing an enemy’s movements). At a glance, though, it was a regular old hatchet. 

After scraping the extra bits of foliage off the fallen branches, she tied them together with rope and put them in the Item Box as well. 

“I should go ahead and give these to Marelle.” 

Cayna didn’t need to sleep outside anymore, so there was no need to carry kindling around with her. 

Last, she opened her Skill Window and checked all the materials in order to assemble her large-scale items. She would process each part here so the finished product would be nearly put together by the time she returned to the inn. The wind kicked up once again, and stumps danced through the sky. 

“It’s all good. Totally fine,” Cayna murmured as she sweat bullets and immersed herself in her work. 

A week later, all the available villagers gathered at the well at the back of the inn. The circle, with the inn’s very residents at the center, stared curiously at Cayna, who had installed the strange wooden contraption over their well. 

Cayna had left the base alone and had two connected gears acting as an axis like on a tire wheel. Square boxes were placed along the attached caterpillar track at set intervals. It was about forty centimeters wide. Lastly, a hand-cranked gearbox was attached to the axis, and a trough collected the water dropped from the spinning boxes. 

Cayna first turned the handle herself and checked to make sure there were no malfunctions. She then turned it over to Lytt. Surprised that she’d suddenly been given the honors without any explanation as to how it worked, the girl grew frazzled. 

“Huh? Um, what should I do?” 

“All you have to do is turn that handle to the right. Spin it with all you’ve got.” 

Lytt did as she was told and cranked the handle to the right. She was a bit timid at first but began turning it faster and faster. The caterpillar tread rattled as it went around, and the drawn water passed through the trough to the bucket. The water immediately filled up and began overflowing. 

The spectating villagers cheered at this. They advanced with cries of “Me too! Me too!” and each happily took turns spinning the handle. 

“Ohhh! I can get a ton of water without hardly any effort at all.” 

“I see! This certainly is useful! Comin’ up with somethin’ like this… You really are a marvel, Miss Cayna.” 

“Even my grandma can get water now!” 

Even Marelle and her husband, Gatt, were nodding repeatedly with heartfelt thanks. The village elder walked up to Cayna as the villagers’ glee sent her into a victory pose. 

“Pardon me, Miss Cayna, but do you think you could do the same thing to the well at the center of town?” 

“Yes, of course. I can make one right away.” 

There were three wells in the village, and the one behind the inn was allotted to those living in the southern sector. 

The centermost well was for the northern sector, and the last was located on the outer edge of town by the fence. Apparently, that well had caved in and had been out of use for quite some time. It was possible to dig it back out, but the scent of water would likely attract monsters, so it remained blocked off. 

“Time to add the finishing touches.” 

The villagers stepped back a bit, and two different techniques popped into her head. An instant later, an almost three-meter-tall pillar of flames rose up from beneath her, and sparks flew over Cayna’s head. 

The red light signaling an Effect Up status hovered around her like mist. The villagers unsurprisingly recoiled from this, but the mysterious sight quickly left them speechless. 

Magic Skill: Flame-Type Addition: Boost: Start 

Magic Skill: Additional Preservation Level 9: Endless Night: Start 

Golden particles released from her outstretched palm and sparkled as they clung to the water wheel. It shone gold for some time but disappeared when Cayna took a deep breath and returned to her usual self. 

She’d first used a boost spell, which would make the subsequent spell 1.3 times more effective. 

The second spell was magic that multiplied the caster’s level by the magic level and converted it into an equivalent number of days. It created a coating that prevented the target from rusting, rotting, or breaking. 

In other words, for 12,870 days, or around thirty-five years, the water wheel would remain good as new. 

A water wheel was installed in the central well before the day’s end, which inspired a new round of hurrahs among the villagers. It was then decided that yet another banquet ought to be held “in honor of Miss Cayna’s great achievements.” 

They offered her alcohol as they had the day before, but she firmly refused. All grew still as the villagers’ glares bore into her. 

Needless to say, she unwillingly ended up drinking regardless… 

The next day, she once more vowed to never drink again, but Marelle’s reply of “What? C’mon now, you’ll get used to it if you just keep at it” sent a shiver down her spine.